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Show THE CUTTING OF TIMBER. Commissioner Sparks "takes a Statement State-ment Relative to This Important ' Question. Washington, November 30. Serious misrepresentations of the scope and purpose pur-pose of the reoent order of .the .Commissioner .Commis-sioner of the General Land Office, respecting respect-ing the timber depredations, having obtained ob-tained currency in many quarters, ' General Sparks made a statement to-day for publication publica-tion in respect to the matter. He sa;d he had transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior In-terior over thirty cases of timber trespasses, reported by special agents, against the Montana Mon-tana Improvement . Company, and recommended recom-mended that suits be instituted-for--the recovery from said - company, jointly with the Northern Pacifio Railroad Company of $750,033 damages to the United States. This company has a stock capital of $2,C30,C0O, of which the Northern Pacific Railroad is said to own the majority, and is reported to the General Land Office as one of the most extensive ex-tensive and dangerous depletors of public timber in the Northwest. He denies specific-. ally that he has taken any official action relative to the cutting of timber from mineral min-eral lands "for agricultural, mining, or other domestio purposes," under the act of June 30, 1878, other than to submit to the Secretary Secre-tary for consideration certain amendments to existing rules, the chief object of which is to prevent the TAKING OF TIMBER IN EVASION OF THE LAW. For speculation and export," and says, that these amendments, which are now being considered by the Secretary and himself, do not contain the asserted provision that individuals indi-viduals entitled to take timber must cut it themselves and cannot hire the work done or hire servants to do it. He has made no such recommendation. General Sparks says emphatically there is no truth in the statement state-ment that there is a coolness between the head of the Interior Department and himself, him-self, and that no rules, amended or otherwise, other-wise, have been promulgated by him that have not been approved by the Secretary. "This administration," he says, "means reform re-form of abuses, and a return to honest, just methods of government. No man is more devotedly enlisted in this movement than the Secretary, of the Interior, and I am quite sure his Commissioner of the General Land Office will do all in his jowerio this end.: -----vJ"- |